When you're working to build new habits into your life, there are a lot of things people consider: What am I going to make a new habit? How will this new habit help me? How and when am I going to integrate it into my day?
The missing component nine times out of ten is celebrating your victories, big and small. When we accomplish big things, we usually celebrate. When we graduate or get a new job or hit a goal weight, we do it up! What I want to propose today, however, is that you consider celebrating even the teensiest, tiniest little wins.
Why? Because of dopamine. You'll see that I mention dopamine a lot both in my blog and on my Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/djgalluphypnotherapy -- check it out!) and that's because as much as we like to think that through sheer willpower and force that we can make change happen in our lives, the fact is that at a base level we're still animals and our brains use a complicated mixture of chemicals and electricity to make things happen.
Hacking into our dopamine response is just a useful way to get us to do something more routinely. The reason is because when we link a behavior or action with a dopamine response, it "tickles" our rewards center. It creates positive connections between what we're doing and feeling good about what we're doing. So, if we are trying to get ourselves to establish a great new habit in our lives, "hacking" our body's reward system is a pretty great way of getting us to keep doing it. It's the proverbial carrot and stick, if you will.
The funny thing is: It's actually pretty easy to do! A lot of research has been coming out about smiling. When we smile, we're enlisting between 10 and 17 muscles to do so. When those muscles activate, they seem to physiologically induce beneficial emotional and physiological results in the body. Neuropeptides are released as well as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Although the science is still out about whether "fake smiling" has any benefit, we do know that smiling alone can have some beneficial effects on mood.
What I'd like for you to do when you set about building a new habit is take a moment IMMEDIATELY after you do your new habit to genuinely celebrate. It can be anything that works for you, but I really want it to be genuine. It can be pumping your first in the air, doing a little dance, whistling, laughing, smiling ... It doesn't matter. Just pick something, be really happy about it, and do it right after you do your new habit. We're looking to create a connection in your brain here: "When I do this behavior or action, I am happy!" The proximity is important. Don't wait 5 minutes later to celebrate. We're conditioning ourselves to want to do our new habit more and more.
I've been trying to work more exercise into my daily life since I work at a computer. I decided to start doing pushups after every time I use the bathroom and wash my hands. I started with 2 each time and then I'd do my mini celebration. Seriously, just 5-10 seconds of "I did it! Yay!" was enough to keep me on track. Nowadays I'm up to 7 pushups each time or about 70 a day. To be honest, I look forward to the celebration portion so much that I do the pushups just to celebrate.
It also doesn't matter HOW SMALL the habit is. Very small things taken step by step turn into big things. Going from couch potato to marathon runner starts with a short walk around the block. Little steps matter. Even if your new habit was as simple as stretching for 20 seconds every hour -- a pretty simple goal -- feel good about it! Little wins become big wins because when you build a new habit it's easy to start scaling it up as it becomes just another thing that you do. A 20 second stretch can become 30 seconds or a minute. A walk around the block can turn into a half mile walk or longer. For me, 2 pushups became 7. Start where you are.
So, whatever habit you're looking to install into your life, make it a point to make it fun and celebrate. I guarantee, the better you make yourself feel about what you're doing the more likely you are to stick with it in the long run.
Happy trails, friends!
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